Lucknow: Ex-employees among 7 held for railway job scam

TNN | Updated: Apr 25, 2019, 7:21 IST

LUCKNOW: A gang that forged railway appointment letters in lieu of money was busted in Vikasnagar on Wednesday with the arrest of its kingpin, a former grade IV railway employee, and six others. Besides kingpin Sushil Sharma, those arrested also include a former contract employee of the railways identified as Lakhan Singh. Sharma had been sacked in 2015 and Singh a year later. The other five accused have been identified as Ankit Katiyar, Mithun Gautam, Arun Bariya, Shrawan Yadav and Rajendra Paswan. Police have seized 100 forged appointment letters for group-C and group-C jobs, fake seals and insignia of railway officials, Rs 2 lakh in cash and a sedan. According to police, the gang operated from a small office near the mini-stadium in Sector 11, Vikasnagar. The kingpin posed as the HRD head of the railway board and met prospective targets at stations. The aspirants were made to appear for a test and the gang also facilitated training. Uniforms and badges were thereafter issued to “successful candidates”, each of whom had to cough up Rs 6 lakh. Luck ran out on the Sharma gang when one of the con victims, Mamta Yadav, lodged a police complaint on Monday after she realised the appointment letter was not genuine.

SP (Trans-Gomti) Amit Kumar said Singh trapped unsuspecting candidates and introduced them to Sharma. The first instalment of Rs 2 lakh was taken before the test, held at the gang’s Vikasnagar office, while another equal instalment was charged during a medical examination done at railway offices in Gonda and Lucknow. “Screened candidates then appeared for an interview at a private hotel near New Delhi railway station and paid the remaining Rs 2 lakh for training, again conducted at Gonda and Lucknow,” the SP said, adding that the racket seemed to be an interstate one. “More information have been sought from Gonda and Gorakhpur district police.”